Want to compete with the best of the best? Then hit the ground running. Here’s how.
The toughest job in business is taking over as a new leader. You have to quickly assess the situation, pull together a strong team, decide on a strategy, and inspire everyone to execute it.
The stakes for new leaders are even higher. Whether you’ve been brought on to fix something that’s broken, launch a product, move the company in a new direction, or head up a division, every new leader is under the gun to get up to speed and begin producing strong numbers- ASAP.
In Hit the Ground Running, Jason Jennings introduces us to America’s best performing new CEOs who pulled off the most impressive transformations of the decade. They doubled revenues, more than tripled earnings per share, and doubled their company’s net profit margins.
After interviewing and analyzing the stories of these top leaders, Jennings delivers their hard- earned, battle-tested strategies, which will inspire any new leader to take the helm and start delivering.
When Richard and Tim Smucker were appointed co-CEOs of The J. M. Smucker Company, they shared their strategy with everyone and got them on board with their mission. Since then, Smucker’s went on to dominate the markets and bring in billions of dollars of new business.
Mike McCallister, the CEO of a twenty-billion-dollar health-services giant, decided to stop pretending and publicly admit that health insurance is broken. Humana began to replace a crippled, complex, and confusing system with one that works and has more than tripled revenues, earnings, and share price since McCallister took over.
By processing change in bite-size pieces, Jeffrey Lorberbaum led Mohawk Industries through twenty successful acquisitions and turned his family’s carpet-making business into the largest flooring company in the world.
Filled with engaging stories and lessons from the cream of the crop, Hit the Ground Running will help new leaders at every level balance short- and long-term goals as well as the needs of shareholders, employees, customers, and the community

Eventually every job and every business will become irrelevant. According to Jason Jennings, the past few decades have seen unprecedented shifts; former third-world nations have transformed themselves into high-tech manufacturing powerhouses; technology has democratized business and increased competition in ways never before seen; and customers, used to getting exactly what they want when they want it, are no longer beholden to the corporate giants.
Facing these challenges, today’s established companies face two choices: stick with the status quo and become irrelevant or completely revamp their strategy in order to stay vital in the new world order. But how?
Jennings and his research team examined thousands of articles and news stories and selected the 100 best examples of companies-including Best Buy, Cirque du Soleil, and Avon-that have successfully reinvented themselves. After interviewing the key players in these transformations, Jennings established what he calls the “reinvention rules,” including:
* Abandon all ego: In the old days, one’s reputation could last for an entire career. But now being a master of conventional thinking yields conventional results
* Take lots of small chances: When venturing into new realms, one huge risk could potentially break your company, but small bets allow you to see what works-and what doesn’t-without putting your neck on the line.
* Be frugal: Money can solve a lot of problems, but it can’t solve everything. The best companies know how to fix problems and effect change using the resources already available.
* Grow constantly: If you want to nurture and retain your best people, you need to make sure you can give them opportunities that will make them want to stay.
With the same friendly style of Jennings’s previous titles, this audiobook is a must-hear for any leader who wants to stay relevant for years to come.

Tradition says there are three ways to grow a company’s revenue: fire up the sales team with empty promises, cut costs and downsize, or cook the books. But what if there’s a better way — a way that nine amazingly profitable and well-run companies are already embracing.
Jason Jennings and his research team screened more than 100,000 American companies to find nine that rarely end up on magazine covers, yet have increased revenues and profits by 10 percent or more for ten consecutive years. Then they interviewed the leaders, workers and customers of these quiet superstars to find the secrets of their astoundingly consistent and profitable growth.
Jennings discovered that consistent high performance takes more than locker-room speeches to the sales team. What these companies have in common is a culture based on a shockingly simple precept: Think big, but act small. It works for retailers like PETCO and Cabela’s, manufactures like Medline Industries, service companies like Sonic Drive-In, private educational companies like Strayer, and industrial giants like Koch Enterprises.
In Think Big, Act Small, Jennings reveals the unique power of combining the strengths of a big organization with the hunger of a start-up. Any company, no matter what its size or industry, can benefit from following these examples.